The Message
by Nerwen Aldarion
Summary: Episode tag for 6x01 Takes place during Red John's phone call to Jane. Jane rushes to find Lisbon and is horrified by what he sees...but comes to some realizations about his own feelings and what this all means. Jisbon


Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: Somehow I managed to stop screaming at my TV to write this. Come on, we all know Lisbon isn't dead, it's the premiere for crying out loud but I had to imagine what the reunion would be like. A Jisbon fan can dream hehehe.

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The Message

"I'm sorry, Patrick. Teresa can't come to the phone right now. Can I take a message?"

There was no mistaking that voice; it haunted his nightmares living and awake. He'd gone through ever cadence of every word spoken numerous times, searching for a connection to on of thousands and now one of seven.

And he had answered Lisbon's phone.

Oh God.

Jane was still standing in stunned silence, listening to Red John's calm breathing. "No?" the monster continued, "Well I'll tell her you called."

He'd tell her. Did that mean she was alive?

"Wait," Jane began, his voice barely under control. He was ready to do it, to beg and plead with this demon for Lisbon's soul. He would sacrifice anything for her. Anything.

But then the line went dead.

Jane could do nothing more but stand in that hallway with the phone pressed to his ear, willing for something, some proof that he wasn't too late. That Teresa Lisbon wasn't truly in the hands of Red John. He'd done this. He'd let this happen, regardless of the choices they had both made, it was him that had actually painted the target on her back. He was the one who let her go and he was the one who'd made it perfectly clear to this monster that she meant more to him than anything.

And one thing was even clearer.

He couldn't live without her.

Of course now he might not have a choice.

Jane finally snapped out of his daze and moved quickly towards the bullpen. If there was a chance she was still alive he had to find her. Maybe Red John wouldn't want to kill her yet, not until he got there. Then he could find a way to stop it. He fought the voice in his head telling him that it was pointless…Red John only killed or did worse, left them thinking they were dead.

"Grace!" Jane shouted as soon as he entered the bullpen. "Track down Lisbon's phone."

"What?" The redhead asked, startled by his frantic voice. Cho and Rigsby looked surprised too but Jane ignored them.

"You can see where her phone is right?"

"I can see what tower she is near," Grace replied.

"Do it. Compare that to the bugs she had you put on the suspect's phones."

But Grace wasn't one to take orders from him without question. "Why?"

Jane glared at her. "Because Red John just answered her phone."

The moment of silence that followed was loud with the implications of it. All three team members gaped at him with real ear in their eyes. No doubt he had a similar look in his own. But Jane was doing everything he could to not fall apart at the moment. "Find out where she is."

He knew that the present tense he'd used tipped them off, gave them hope that Lisbon was still alive. Perhaps it was a lie but Jane wasn't going to begrudge them something as simple as hope, not when he was fervently trying to believe in it himself.

It took a few moments for Grace to pull up the GPS software and track down the nearest tower her cell phone had pinged on. "Brett Partridge is in the same area."

"What's his address?"

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Cho had started making calls to SACPD and calling all nearby units to show up at the address but Jane was sure of one thing: he would beat them there. He'd had the gas pedal pushed the floor from the moment Grace told him the address. He didn't care about back up, Red John was certainly long gone. The only thing that truly mattered was if Lisbon would be there or not.

Or her body.

The address led to a rundown old home in a terrible part of the city, it fit Red John's theatrical style perfectly. Of course Lisbon must have heard something, she wouldn't have gone into such a place unless she thought someone else was in trouble. Probably Brett Partridge.

In the distance he heard sirens, perhaps the Calvary wasn't that far behind him after all. Not that he was going to wait around for them. Jane didn't hesitate, his car had barely come to a stop before he leapt out of it and rushed through the broken door.

"Lisbon?!" He shouted, pausing for a second and silently praying to hear her voice. But Silence was the only reply. "Lisbon!" he shouted again but every aching beat of his heart seemed to fill him with dread.

He might never hear her voice again.

Jane rushed through the house, checking the rooms but finding nothing. When he came to the one on the very end of the hallway the smell of blood warned him that he was close. His stomach twisted into a painful knot, he'd lost the second woman he'd ever loved…to the same monster.

And just like before, Jane had no choice but to turn the doorknob and witness his worst nightmare.

The first thing he saw was Lisbon's still body lying prone on the floor. That was terrifying enough. But the grotesque face painted in blood against her white skin was truly horrifying. There was a raspy sound that was harsh and loud in the quiet house and it took Jane a moment realize it was him, his anguish whimpers of pain.

He somehow stumbled over to her body, kneeling down next to her so he could take her hand. It was warm…very warm. A flash of hope sprang through him and he felt her wrist. Could it? He reached up to feel her throat…and the strong steady pulse there.

She was alive.

"Lisbon?" Jane asked softly, gently cradling her head to try and nudge her awake. Her eyes remained closed though. He looked over her body and saw she appeared unharmed, the blood wasn't hers. He was sure of that, no marks or cuts on her. She was alive. That was what mattered, she was alive.

"Lisbon?" He said again, not using the sleeve of his coat the try and wipe the blood off of her face. He didn't want to see that on her anymore.

Suddenly she let out a soft moan and her eyes fluttered. "Jane?" her voice was low, almost a whisper but it was real. She was alive and talking.

"It's okay," he told her, "you're okay."

She closed her eyes again as the heavy sound of footsteps warned them that they had more visitors. "Boss?!" Rigsby and Cho were shouting at the same time.

"She's in here," Jane called out to them. "She's alive." He didn't move, just kept her head cradled in his lap as he wiped the blood away. The team finally found them like that, with Lisbon still drifting in and out of consciousness. "He must had drugged her," Jane said, acknowledging their presence, "but she's alive."

"Partridge isn't."

Jane looked up and for the first time noticed the other body in the room. The mangled corpse of Brett Partridge was across the floor, a large pool of blood seeping from him. So that was what Red John had used.

He didn't care, wouldn't move from his spot where he could feel Lisbon's warmth and see her breath, positive proof that she wasn't gone from this world. Then she opened her eyes again and whispered his name once more.

Jane stayed there until the medics came to take care of her. Only then would he let her go.

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Lisbon was groggy until she made it to the emergency room. She finally managed to get the drugs out of her system and at least be alert enough to talk to Cho and Rigsby about what had happened. She explained everything, finding Partridge in the house and what he said to her, suddenly being grabbed from behind and the sharp prick of a needle in her neck. After that it was all dark until the shadow image of Jane's face as he found her. But she could fill in a few blanks. Jane had done what he could to wipe the blood off but remnants of it were still on her face, more than enough for her to recognize what image Red John had painted on her.

She received a lot of phone calls and visitors in her brief stay in the ER. Rigsby, Cho and Van Pelt all hovered around while the most disconcerting part was a phone call from Bertram. It was chilling to have him say he was glad to hear she was all right…when he was one of seven that could be Red John.

Actually it was one of six now.

But one face never showed up, one voice never came over her phone.

Jane remained away from the hospital, having quietly disappeared once the ambulance carried her away. Lisbon wanted to be surprised but she wasn't, she had a feeling that Jane was probably drowning in his emotions.

Well it was her turn to throw him a lifesaver once again.

As soon as she was released she went to the CBI, not exactly doctor's orders but she didn't care. She made her way up to the attic and this time the door opened easily. So he hadn't locked himself in, at least not this night.

But the room itself was empty except for his piles of notes and pictures. The cot was bare with the pillow and blanket set to one side. Lisbon stepped through the room and headed for the windowed section. Sure enough, Jane was sitting outside on that little rooftop nook, merely staring out at the street below.

She stepped outside, the sound of early morning traffic minimal even in the night air. He didn't look at her but she knew he knew she was there. Lisbon let out a heavy sigh. "You can say it."

There was a slight quirking of his eyebrow and Jane tilted his head a little so he could look up at her. "Say what?"

"Say it," she repeated. "I was wrong. You were right. Red John used my ideas against me…I am in over my head."

Lisbon thought that this would make him feel better, at the very least grateful she was admitting her faults. She would defer to him now in the ongoing hunt. That was what counted.

But Jane didn't look pleased at all. In fact he looked pissed.

"You really think I give a damn who was right?" Jane asked, his voice low and biting with anger.

"Jane…"

"He had _you_," Jane reminded her, "he had you and there was nothing your or I could do. He could have killed you just as easily as he killed Partridge. Do you think I was thinking that I was right when Red John called me on your phone to let me know? No! That was the last thing on my mind. I was far too busy trying to deal with the anguish of knowing that the one person I can't live without was probably gone."

Jane leaned back against the wall, putting his head in his hands, no longer looking into her eyes. For her part, she just stared at him, the words _'the one person I can't live without'_ looping through her head. It took her a moment to finally hear the soft heavy breathing and even longer for her to recognize what it was. The sound of someone crying.

Lisbon knelt down onto the ground next to him and tenderly reached for him, wrapping her arms around him, cradling his head the way he had hers. His tears were wetting the fabric of her blouse but she didn't mind, just gently stroked his hair and let him cry, let him listen to the beating of her heart. "I'm alive," she whispered to him, "I'm alive."

It took a long while for Jane to calm down but he didn't move from her embrace, she didn't want him to either. But there were things that needed to said. "Why?" she asked him, "Why didn't he kill me?"

"It wasn't his plan," Jane told her, his voice husky with fresh tears. "At least not yet. This was a message."

She nodded. "A warning for me. That I was wrong."

"No," Jane said, sitting up a little now. "This was for me."

Now Lisbon was a little confused. "For you?"

"Lisbon, what is the first thing you see when you go to a Red John scene?"

"The face," she answered simply.

He nodded. "And this time the face was you. He wanted you to be the first thing I saw; he never intended to kill you tonight. He merely wanted me to know that he could have."

But she still found that hard to believe. She was the one who made mistakes, she was the one who had gone in that house and she was the one who hadn't listened to Jane. "But Jane…why?"

"Because he knows," Jane said, "He knows. He probably knew before I did."

"Knows what?"

"Everything. I thought I was hiding how I felt but I was wrong, I was wrong because I didn't know how much."

"Jane…" Lisbon said softly, "I don't understand."

Jane gave her almost an exasperated look but before she could figure out what that meant, Jane answered her question by leaning close and sealing his lips with hers.

It wasn't a very long kiss, but it wasn't soft and tender either. Jane was far too emotional to be sweet and she was too stunned and enthused as well. But it was enough, enough for her to understand completely what Jane meant by not being able to live without her.

He pulled back, his eyes still a little wet and damp from his tears but she felt his heart racing almost as fast as hers. "It's my fault," Jane said gently, "I put you in this mess."

She shook her head. "I think for once…it was both of us."

They were back to their old dance, darting close to that line but never crossing it. Not yet at least. But the events that night had forced them both to admit to themselves that they wanted to…and maybe they would. Once everything was over and Jane could breathe easily for the first time in a decade.

"What now?" she asked him, the double meaning wasn't lost on either of them.

Jane sighed, resting his head against the wall again. "Six are left, we have to keep narrowing it down. With the team involved we'll have to be even more careful…but we take it slow. Red John is acting fast, if we stay calm…we'll find something." He turned his head to meet her eyes. "And you can't be alone…ever. He's saving you for me…and we can't give him another opportunity to take you away."

Lisbon didn't turn away from his gaze. "He won't."

Jane nodded and let out another sigh, head falling against the brick wall, then her shoulder until she was cradling him again. His ear pressed against her breast so he could listen to the sound of her beating heart. To remember that she was alive.

And the one person it beat for.

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A/N: All right, now that that is over who wants to help drive the getaway car while we hunt down Bruno? Any takers?


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